Meet this Sunday previews venue of ’09 indoor nationals
On Dec. 28, the Potomac Valley Track Club will hold an all-comers meet at the site of the USATF masters indoor nationals in March 2009 in Landover, Maryland. Check out this letter from Joe Burno, president of the Maryland Masters Track Club, which describes the facilties and includes photo links of the new Mondo track. The site also lists current entrants for masters nationals, including middle-distance star Anselm LeBourne and all-world thrower Neni Lewis. The official online home for masters indoor nationals is on the USATF website here.
9 Responses
Might take a practice run (drive) over there on Sunday, but not to compete. Pretty easy to find, but I did get lost once a few years ago. If you have to ask at a gas station say that it (the track arena) is right by FedEx Field (Washington Redskins); that will get you very close to where you want to be.
We had 93 entrants as of yesterday (Sunday, Dec 21, at 1:00 pm). There is no way that more than 10% of the entrants are in, and even if we are at 10% we still project 930, a record for the meet. Yes! Will be nice to have our biggest fields ever on the track and in the jumps and throws.
The Mondo track looks nice, but for high jumpers the placement of the high jump pits might cause some problems. It looks like the straddle jumpers will have to start their run up from the oval where typically the running competitions are taking place at the same time. They will have to cross the long jump and pole vault run up areas, which are typically also used at the same time. The flop jumpers will have a better situation, but they run up areas will overlap if both high jump pits are used at the same time. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Milan:
I will ask Bruce McBarnette or one of the other jumpers about the concerns you raise (when I go over there on Sunday). I, of course, know very little about hj.
P. Taylor
I wish the USATF site had the schedule up. At least what events go on what days. Is it safe to assume that the schedule would be the same as at Reggie last year? It would be nice to start making travel plans but I need the schedule first.
You can check the tentative schedule at http://www.pvtc.org. I’ve jumped there a few times. Yes, some straddle jumpers may have to start the approach from LJ or PV runway. There could be a little overlap. If they use 2 pits at the same time the area can be crowded. But overall it’s a great facility and I like the fact that they put in mondo.
There was a big HS invitational on the track on Saturday. I queried the athletes from the school where I coach jumps as to how fast they thought it was compared to the old poured surface. To my surprise they told me it was slower. The performances seemed to back that up. Walking on the surface and pushing down on it with my thumb, I can tell you it is the softest Mondo I’ve ever felt. We’ll see what the folks think that run/jump on it Sunday.
Ooops sorry I was griping about the schedule for the March indoor nationals.
Hi, Kim. Go to http://www.pvtc.org. First thing you’ll see is all the information on USA Masters Indoor Nationals in March. Click on “2009 Schedule” and there’s the tentative schedule for Indoor Nationals. рџ™‚
Went over to the arena this morning (Sunday) to check it out, as changes have been made.
1. Parking: Every lot available was taken, and the attendant/security person told me to drive somewhere and walk the short distance back (I think he meant parking for FedEx Field). Pedro doesn’t park off the site unless he is actually announcing (or it’s the Penn Relays), and thus I drove home instead.
Will have to alert the meet director to the parking situation (could be an issue on March 21, Saturday, which will be our biggest day), but I am sure he is aware of it already.
As for high jumping, will defer to Kimmy Nakatake (post no. 5), as she can both do it (jumped about 5 feet, 4.96 inches at Spokane) and talk about it.
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